A strut type suspension of a motor vehicle which permits selection of vehicle wheel camber alignment typically can have adjustable connections between the lower end of the strut member and the wheel support knuckle, thereby permitting selection of wheel camber alignment. Other strut type suspensions can have various types of adjustable connections which permit selection of wheel camber alignment. In addition, other types of motor vehicle suspensions can have a variety of adjustable connections permitting adjustment of camber alignment.
Adjustment of vehicle wheel camber using conventional prior art methods is time-consuming, inconvenient, and inefficient. For example, one of the more commonly used methods described in the prior art requires hoisting of a motor vehicle by means of a hydraulic hoist, suspension of a wheel and loosening of the bolts required to be loosened for the camber adjustment, and adjustment of the wheel's camber alignment while the wheel is suspended, using an appropriately calibrated optical guide which determines extent of camber. The optical guide needs to be calibrated when it is used in connection with a motor vehicle which has been raised on a hoist and the wheels are suspended in order to take into account the tendency of the wheels to splay outwards when they are so suspended.
In another example, in a vehicle suspension in which camber adjustment is effected by adjustment of a cam, the spring mass of the motor vehicle must be raised off a wheel before its camber can be adjusted. This is so because the cam cannot, as practical matter, be turned until the vehicle's spring mass has been taken off the wheel. In accordance with the prior art, the motor vehicle must be raised by means of a hydraulic hoist such that the wheel to be aligned does not bear any part of the motor vehicle's spring mass, thereby permitting the cam to be turned for amber alignment.
Many of the more commonly-used methods in the prior art require that the motor vehicle be raised by means of a hydraulic hoist so that no part of the motor vehicle's spring mass rests on the wheel for which camber is to be adjusted. Many such methods involve the use of eccentrics, hydraulic hoists or jacks, in conjunction with an appropriately calibrated optical guide, while the motor vehicle is raised and its wheels are suspended, so that adjustments to camber alignment are sometimes difficult to make and time-consuming.